Preaspiration
In phonetics, preaspiration is a period of voicelessness or aspiration preceding the closure of a voiceless obstruent, basically equivalent to an -like sound preceding the obstruent. In other words, when an obstruent is preaspirated, the glottis is opened for some time before the obstruent closure. To mark preaspiration using the International Phonetic Alphabet, generally the diacritic for regular aspiration (a superscript "h", ), is placed before the preaspirated consonant. Typology Preaspiration is comparatively uncommon across languages of the world, and is claimed by some to not be phonemically contrastive in any language. A distinction is therefore often made between so-called normative and non-normative preaspiration: in a language with normative preaspiration of certain voiceless obstruents, the preaspiration is obligatory even though it is not a distinctive feature; in a language with non-normative preaspiration, the preaspiration can be phonetically-structured for those who use it, but it is non-obligatory, and may not appear with all speakers. Preaspirated consonants are typically in free variation with spirant-stop clusters, though they may also have a relationship (synchronically and diachronically) with long vowels or -stop clusters. Preaspiration can take a number of different forms; while the most usual is glottal friction (an -like sound), the precise phonetic quality can be affected by the obstruent or the preceding vowel, becoming for example after close vowels; other potential realizations include and even . Preaspiration is very unstable both synchronically and diachronically and is often replaced by a fricative or by a lengthening of the preceding vowel. Distribution Preaspiration is perhaps best-known from North Germanic languages, most prominently in Icelandic and Faroese. It is also a prominent feature of Scottish Gaelic. It occurs in some dialects of Norwegian and Swedish as well as, Halh Mongolian, some Sami languages, and in several American Indian languages, including dialects of Cree, Ojibwe, Fox, and Hopi. Examples Icelandic Some examples of preaspirated plosives from Icelandic (where they occur only after stressed vowels): *''kappi'' , 'hero' *''hattur'' , 'hat' * , 'thank' Huautla Mazatec In Huautla Mazatec, preaspirates can occur word-initially, perhaps uniquely among languages which contain preaspirates: * - 'fish' * - 'a sore' * - 'small' * - 'stubble' Scottish Gaelic In Scottish Gaelic, however, due to the historical loss of voiced stops preaspiration is phonemic in medial and final positions after stressed vowels.Borgstrøm, C. The Dialects of the Outer Hebrides (1940) Norsk Tidskrift for Sprogvidenskap Its strength varies from area to area can manifest itself ( or ) or in areas with strong preaspiration as or . The occurrence of preaspiration follows a hierarchy of c > t > p; i.e. if a dialect has preaspiration with , it will also have it in the other places of articulation. Preaspiration manifests itself as follows:Ó Dochartaigh, C. Survey of the Gaelic Dialects of Scotland I-V Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (1997) ISBN 1-85500-165-9 *'Area 1' as and *'Area 2' as and *'Area 3' as and *'Area 4' as *'Area 5' as and (no preaspiration of t'' and ''p) *'Area 6' no preaspiration There are numerous minimal pairs: * glag "clock" vs glac "grab" (v.) * ad "hat" vs at "boil" (n.) * leag "throw down" vs leac "flagstone" * aba "abbot" vs apa "ape" (n.) See also *Aspiration * Prevoicing *List of phonetic topics *Phonation Notes References * * * * * * * * Category:Phonetics br:Rakc'hwezhadur de:Präaspiration no:Preaspirasjon pl:Preaspiracja